poetry out loud #2

The poem I picked for my poetry out loud competition is called The Donkey by G.K. Chesterton. I picked it because it was dramatic, cleverly worded, and only 16 lines. This poem jumped out at me because it’s dramatic and dark but also whimsical and satirical. That “not too seriousness” really jumped out at me. I’ve memorized it and am as confident as I will ever be about performing it.

The poem is about a donkey. That’s the easiest fact to come up with since the poem is called “the donkey” but you can never be sure, poets are tricky. So the donkey that the poem is about is born from a blood red moon, it’s the first donkey to be born. It is a monstrous thing created by the devil himself. It is so evil looking that the people of the villages actually fear and worship it.    

Since the poem is sort of dramatic, I’ll use a lot of voice fluctuation and dramatic voice transitions for the different stanzas. I’m going to try to minimize acting the story out with my hands, which just sounds like a bad idea. I have no idea what to do with my hands, I guess that why we have pockets.

Poetry Out Loud

Part 1. Poem surfing

Poems I read:

·         Garden

·         Good People

·         The Donkey

·         Poem

·         The Hill

·         Pride

Part 2. What I think

The donkey was my favorite poem because it’s a cool poem and it wasn’t too complex but not too simple. I didn’t like the others because they were simple but long. The other ones where about actual people and that gets sort of boring… Also The Donkey sort of reminds me of The Jabberwocky which is a cool but long poem. I’m going to read it for POL.

Part 3. Scoring criteria and me

Dramatic appropriateness and level of understanding will be the easiest categories for me. Recitation is about conveying a poem’s sense primarily with one’s voice. In this way, recitation is closer to the art of oral interpretation than theatrical performance. This is fine with me because I don’t like to act.

Physical presence and poem difficulty might be hard. The competitor will appear at ease and comfortable with the audience. That’s not going to happen. A poem with difficult content conveys complex, sophisticated ideas, which the student will be challenged to grasp and express. Mine is about a donkey, so that might be tough also.

Part 4. Watching videos

The movies I watched:

Writ on the Steps of Puerto Rican Harlem

-this dude picked a hard poem. He’s also an actor. He’s very dramatic.

Forgetfulness

- He’s funny and has a good voice. He knows the poem.

Part 5. Summary

In general I don’t like to read poetry. But the poetry out loud program seems pretty cool. Too bad it’s mandatory. Great way to ruin a good idea. But there are a lot of fun poems on there. I’m going to read The Donkey, I think I’ll do ok but there’s no way I’ll win. Poetry: not my thing.